Erté, Cactus Wren, and Kells

Erté, Kells, and Cactus Wren are the three little dolls that I've just finished. I've listed all three of them in my Etsy shop (and you can click on the photos to go to their listing). Each is about 7.5 inches tall, or 19 centimeters, if standing.

I called this one "Erté" because she was inspired by the great art deco artist and designer. I've painted an abstract design on her torso.

 

Her face is barely sculpted - definition and depth is achieved by the paint. 

 

As most of my dolls, she has wings painted on her back. 

Kells is a little doll inspired by the great masterpiece, the Book of Kells. She has an entwined dragon-type image painted on her torso, with a Celtic knot twisting around her shoulder.

I thought I'd do something Irish-inspired for the month of March. She's more sculpted than Erté - her nose and lips are fully defined, and her eyes are quite green.

Her wings are also inspired by images from the Book of Kells.

The cactus wren sings the most lovely song perched atop a cholla or prickly pear cactus. This doll has a little bird painted on her torso. 

 

She is also more sculpted than Erté, and her hair is made from strands of burlap. 

Wren-like wings are painted on her back. 

The small dolls were new for me - I  discovered it is rather difficult to sculpt such tiny parts with paperclay, and took much longer than I expected. But I love to constantly challenge myself through my art, always trying new things and experimenting with ideas and techniques. 

Next I plan to make more of the larger, more intricate dolls. I still have a bag full of watch parts with which to experiment, and lots of ideas.... Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think! Which is your favorite, and why? What would you like to see next? 

Little Dolls

For several reasons (some perhaps unknown to me), I decided to make a few small dolls - each 7.5 inches high (about 19 centimeters).

The first was my little Bluebird, made especially for my blog giveaway. I liked her so much that I had to hang on to her for just a while longer so I wouldn't forget how I made her. So now I have made four and Bluebird is going to fly to her new home next week. I'll post more about each one soon.

One World One Heart Giveaway Winner!

Time to announce the One World One Heart Giveaway Winner!  Here's little Bluebird waiting to go on her trip to her new home.

Well, I have drawn a number through the Random Number Generator. It's not as dramatic as pulling a number out of a hat, but it sure is a lot easier than organizing that many numbers. Oh - I wish I had taken a screen shot of that before I closed the window!  I did figure out how to number my entries. I forget where I found it, but there was a tutorial on the web that showed how to change the code so that each entry is numbered. It took a few tries, but I figured it out eventually.

So the winner is... da da da-ta! Comment number 108. That's Lonnie Bullington of LJ Studios in Phoenix, Arizona - right next door to us here in New Mexico. But I'm running into a bit of a problem - Lonnie doesn't have a way to contact her through her blog! So I will leave a comment for her on her blog and hope that she reads it.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, and I hope that you will come back often. I'm still at the beginning of my art doll journey and look forward to wherever this path takes me!

Last chance for OWOH Bluebird Giveaway!

My giveaway ends tonight at midnight, so make sure to go to my One World One Heart (OWOH) post and leave a comment over there to be entered into a drawing for an original art doll! Sure has been fun checking out the other blogs signed up for the OWOH event. Here's a photo of my giveaway again:

There are some art dolls that I would just love to win (not to mention the bags, jewelry, beads, and other art).... Here's one of my favorites, a zombie couple by Loopy Boopy, who is now celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans:

It's interesting that the event is mostly women. Is it because it has a crafty focus? Is it because women are more likely to be in groups of artists who promote each other through projects like this? Is it because women are more generous than men? Is it because women have more art blogs than men? My husband, an artist and writer, is one of the few exceptions, and he's giving away this print of one of his digital pieces.

Visit his blog to find out more, and make sure to check out his stories - they're really great! And if you're curious - that's our cat Lucy with her head superimposed on a doll from my collection.

Other Blogs

It's been quite an adventure, visiting all the other One World One Heart blogs and signing up to be in the running for different giveaways.  It's a great way to make connections, and I'm finding out that other bloggers often run giveaways to help get the word out about their great products.  Here's a wonderful one:

 

Click on the image to go to the Patina Soul blog and leave a comment to enter a giveaway to win all this vintage jewelry!

And another one here at Tarnished and Tattered, a beautiful blog.

They're giving away a basket full of all sorts of great vintage stuff. 

And one more from In the Light of the Moon:

 

This one is a lovely mixed-media pendant. 

Great stuff, and I love cross-promoting other artists' creative endeavors! Getting lots of ideas for another giveaway - perhaps when I hit 100 posts?

Traveling Doll Project: two other dolls

Today was the unveiling of the other two dolls that I will be working on as part of the Team Docka for the Traveling Doll Project. 

Here is Simone by Spiritmama:

And here is Payten by Mealy Monster Land:

Payten is already home with me, and I have lots of ideas of what to do with her.... Click on the images to see the blog posts about each doll.

Traveling Art Doll: Peregrina

I've finally finished my doll for the Art Dolls Only Traveling Doll Project!

 

This is Peregrina, a "blank" doll to be sent on to Mealy Monster Land (Nicole) and SpiritMama (Waxela) on our mini travel doll challenge! 

She's made of cloth with paperclay, painted with acrylics, and stands about 14 inches tall. I debated whether to paint her face, but in the end I couldn't resist. It also seemed that she should have some undies, so I painted them on her as well.

So off she goes with her diary to Waxela tomorrow, where she will spend a month, then she will be sent to Nicole. 

 

Each of these artists will give her their creative touch, and she'll eventually end up back here. 

In the meantime, I've received Nicole's contribution, Payten, shown here posing with Peregrina. I've got a month to work on her and then send her to Waxela, when I'll get Waxela's doll from Nicole!  Some of the groups are as large as six or seven, but I opted to join a mini group of three this time around. I can't begin to imagine how Peregrina will turn out, and I've got my creative juices flowing to figure out how to start on Payton. I think I'll start by getting out the paint brushes.... 

A little more about Peregrina. It's a name that means "pilgrim" and is the subject of a beautiful song composed in Mexico in the early 1920s by Yucatecan poet Luis Rosada de la Vega with music by Ricardo Palmerin. It was commissioned by Felipe Carrillo Puerto, progressive governor of the Yucatán in 1922, for his love, the San Francisco journalist Alma Reed. You can read more about their tragic love story here, and you can read the lyrics to the song. I haven't found an English translation yet, but you see it run through Google's web page translation here.

Here's a video of the famous Jorge Negrete singing Peregrina with scenes from the movie El Rebelde (Romance de antaño) in 1943.  

Of course, I realize that adventures can change in mid-stream and Peregrina may take on a completely different personality, but it's always fun to start with a story!

Web Site Update!

Getting all this attention from the One World One Heart (OWOH) blog event has inspired me to update my blog and web design.  (Scroll down through a few entries below to find the giveaway.)

So my web site now has a new look, as well as the masthead for this blog and my Etsy store. A couple of very late nights (and procrastinating on other projects I should be finishing) found me tweaking and photoshopping into the wee hours.  It helps that I have created new dolls over the past few months to add to the imagery!

If you're interested in seeing the art dolls I've made, or the Sasha dolls I've customized over the past few years, you can go the the "gallery" section of my web site for slide shows.  The one thing I still need to do is update Tilily Tangerine's traveling images. Soon, I promise. 

Many thanks to all the visitors to the blog and sweet comments. I have also enjoyed visiting other OWOH blogs - what a great bunch of creative and inspiring folks! 

Timepiece and Bluebird

I thought you might enjoy seeing a photo of Timepiece (recently returned from her gallery show) and the new little Bluebird.

 

Timepiece is about 19 inches tall (if she were to stand). I've got a couple more small dolls in progress, as well as some medium-sized (14-inch) ones.

One World One Heart: Bluebird

Update 2/15: The drawing is officially closed with 254 entries (number 254 is one person who was unable to leave a message). Check back to find out the winner. 

One World One Heart (OWOH) is an international blogging event that was begun three years ago by Lisa Swifka of A Whimsical Bohemian.

 

It's about meeting other bloggers and exploring their work, whether they are an artist, a writer, or have other interests. And as you visit each blog, you may leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for a "giveaway" item from each blogger.  I'm running a bit late (the event started on January 25), and at this point there are over 960 bloggers participating. But I have just now finished and photographed my very first giveaway doll! (I'm number 974 on the OWOH list.) Drumroll, please...

 

As are most of my dolls, she's made from paperclay, cloth, and mixed media, and is painted with acrylics.

 

She's a little thing - measures about seven and a half inches tall. Here she is in my hand for scale. One of my challenges with making the art dolls is that they take me a LONG time to sculpt. So this one is barely sculpted - I just made a couple of indentations for her eyes and that's about it.  The depth of features is through my painting, which is much quicker for me than sculpting -- especially at this tiny size.

 She has a little bluebird painted on her torso, along with a tree branch that is starting to bud for spring. Her hair is made from burlap strands. I loved the way Nancy Wiley's new Alice in Wonderland looked with the burlap hair, so I had to try it for myself.

Little Bluebird has wings painted on her back. 

Okay - here's what you have been waiting for.  Just leave a comment below in the comments section for this blog entry to be entered into a drawing for her, along with a way to get in touch if you're the winner - your blog link, or an email if you're not a blogger. One comment per person, please!

I'll use a random number generator (I've seen how many comments can accumulate on the other blogs!) at the end to pick the winner. The event HAS BEGUN and ends at midnight on February 14, 2010. I'll pick the winner on February 15.

If you like my art dolls, feel free to friend me on Facebook or visit my artist fan page. 

Mother Goose

Perhaps Mother Goose is an imaginary character who made her way into children's poems; perhaps she was a real person in Boston who sang jingles to her children and grandchildren; perhaps she was a French queen who spun tales.

 

The rhymes and stories that are attached to her name have survived for hundreds of years, traced back to the seventeenth century.  Each of us carries some Mother Goose in us. From Pat a Cake to Three Blind Mice, from Humpty Dumpty to Old Mother Hubbard, these simple rhymes often bring up memories of childhood.

My Mother Goose is more about the flight of imagination that is stirred by hearing tales than about the old lady herself. We have different images in our heads when we hear stories or rhymes, whether nonsense of reality. I love the image of Mother Goose riding through the air when she "wanted to wander":

Old Mother Goose,

When she wanted to wander,

Would ride through the air

On a very fine gander.

Jack's mother came in,

And caught the goose soon,

And mounting its back,

Flew up to the moon.

  This Mother Goose doll wears a hat that imitates the Canada Goose; her boots are painted with goose feet. She has a painting of a goose holding a book on her torso; feathers cover her arms and her back so that she may fly. The Canada Goose is quite beautiful with its white marks against the black head and neck. Brown feathers make up its wings while its body is covered with a pale brown down. The Canada Goose winters here in New Mexico - we can often see them in fields near the river.

 

The doll is about 14 inches tall (if she were to stand), and is articulated with buttons and beads. She's made from paperclay (head and torso), air-dry modeling clay (her hat), cloth, acrylic, and other mixed media. Her hair is black Tibetan lambswool.

 

She sits on a shelf which is painted with a couple more geese and words from the poem. She's available in my Etsy shop: Allegromelody.etsy.com -  please let me know if you have any questions!